EpiCHAOS: a metric to quantify epigenomic heterogeneity in single-cell data

Epigenetic heterogeneity is a fundamental property of biological systems and is recognized as a potential driver of tumor plasticity and therapy resistance. Single-cell epigenomics technologies have been widely employed to study epigenetic variation between-but not within-cellular clusters. We intro...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Kelly, Katherine, Scherer, Michael, Braun, Martina Maria, Lutsik, Pavlo, Plass, Christoph
Formato: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2024
País:España
Recursos:Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Repositorio:Repositorio Digital de la UPF
OAI Identifier:oai:repositori.upf.edu:10230/69509
Acesso em linha:http://hdl.handle.net/10230/69509
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13059-024-03446-w
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palavra-chave:Cancer
Chromatin
DNA methylation
Epigenetics
Heterogeneity
Plasticity
Single-cell epigenomics
Descrição
Resumo:Epigenetic heterogeneity is a fundamental property of biological systems and is recognized as a potential driver of tumor plasticity and therapy resistance. Single-cell epigenomics technologies have been widely employed to study epigenetic variation between-but not within-cellular clusters. We introduce epiCHAOS: a quantitative metric of cell-to-cell heterogeneity, applicable to any single-cell epigenomics data type. After validation in synthetic datasets, we apply epiCHAOS to investigate global and region-specific patterns of epigenetic heterogeneity across diverse biological systems. EpiCHAOS provides an excellent approximation of stemness and plasticity in development and malignancy, making it a valuable addition to single-cell cancer epigenomics analyses.